The burden of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted widely on the healthcare providers physically and mentally. Many healthcare providers are exposed to psychological stressors due to ...their high risk of contracting the virus.
This study aimed to measure the level of anxiety among healthcare providers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia. In addition, this study aimed to measure the level of anxiety based on demographic characteristics.
A cross-sectional survey was employed to recruit a convenience sample of healthcare providers. A pencil and paper self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from demographic and generalized anxiety disorder GAD-7 data. However, this study received written informed consent from participants of the study. In addition, the study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Group (IRB Log No. RC20.06.88-03).
A total of 650 participants were recruited, results of GAD-7 showed that 43.5%, 28.9% and 27.5% of healthcare providers in Saudi Arabia experienced mild, moderate and severe anxiety, respectively, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results indicated that age, health specialty, nationality, and sleeping disorders before COVID-19 were associated with anxiety levels.
The generalized anxiety among healthcare providers in Saudi Arabia was mild. Older healthcare providers were found to have a higher level of anxiety compared to other participating healthcare providers. Several factors may contribute to a higher level of anxiety including age, socioeconomic status, marital status, having chronic conditions, and sleeping disorder before the COVID-19 pandemic. To further understand the level of anxiety among healthcare providers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia, longitudinal and mixed-method research is needed.
Backgroundand Objectives: COVID-19 is a novel infectious disease caused by a single-stranded RNA coronavirus called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We aimed to conduct a ...nationwide multicenter study to determine the characteristics and the clinical prognostic outcome of critically ill COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs). Materials and Methods: This is a nationwide cohort retrospective study conducted in twenty Saudi hospitals. Results: An analysis of 1470 critically ill COVID-19 patients demonstrated that the majority of patients were male with a mean age of 55.9 ± 15.1 years. Most of our patients presented with a shortness of breath (SOB) (81.3%), followed by a fever (73.7%) and a cough (65.1%). Diabetes and hypertension were the most common comorbidities in the study (52.4% and 46.0%, respectively). Multiple complications were observed substantially more among non-survivors. The length and frequency of mechanical ventilation use were significantly greater (83%) in the non-survivors compared with the survivors (31%). The mean Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score was 6 ± 5. The overall mortality rate of the cohort associated with patients that had diabetes, hypertension and ischemic heart disease was 41.8%. Conclusion: Age; a pre-existing medical history of hypertension, diabetes and ischemic heart disease; smoking cigarettes; a BMI ≥ 29; a long mechanical ventilation and ICU stay; the need of ventilatory support; a high SOFA score; fungal co-infections and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) use were key clinical characteristics that predicted a high mortality in our population.
This paper introduced the Bayesian estimation when the loss function is a linear exponential (LINEX) for shape parameters from a generalized power function distribution. A numerical application is ...used to prove the accuracy of this method by comparing it with other non-Bayesian methods of estimation as the maximum likelihood.
Theoretical and applied researchers have been frequently interested in proposing alternative skewed and symmetric lifetime parametric models that provide greater flexibility in modeling real-life ...data in several applied sciences. To fill this gap, we introduce a three-parameter bounded lifetime model called the exponentiated new power function (E-NPF) distribution. Some of its mathematical and reliability features are discussed. Furthermore, many possible shapes over certain choices of the model parameters are presented to understand the behavior of the density and hazard rate functions. For the estimation of the model parameters, we utilize eight classical approaches of estimation and provide a simulation study to assess and explore the asymptotic behaviors of these estimators. The maximum likelihood approach is used to estimate the E-NPF parameters under the type II censored samples. The efficiency of the E-NPF distribution is evaluated by modeling three lifetime datasets, showing that the E-NPF distribution gives a better fit over its competing models such as the Kumaraswamy-PF, Weibull-PF, generalized-PF, Kumaraswamy, and beta distributions.
Test statistics from the class of two-sample linear rank tests are commonly used to compare a treatment group with a control group. Two independent random samples of sizes m and n are drawn from two ...populations. As a result, N = m + n observations in total are obtained. The aim is to test the null hypothesis of identical distributions. The alternative hypothesis is that the populations are of the same form but with a different measure of central tendency. This article examines mid p-values from the null permutation distributions of tests based on the class of two-sample linear rank statistics. The results obtained indicate that normal approximation-based computations are very close to the permutation simulations, and they provide p-values that are close to the exact mid p-values for all practical purposes.
Measures of the spread of data for random sums arise frequently in many problems and have a wide range of applications in real life, such as in the insurance field (e.g., the total claim size in a ...portfolio). The exact distribution of random sums is extremely difficult to determine, and normal approximation usually performs very badly for this complex distributions. A better method of approximating a random-sum distribution involves the use of saddlepoint approximations.
Saddlepoint approximations are powerful tools for providing accurate expressions for distribution functions that are not known in closed form. This method not only yields an accurate approximation near the center of the distribution but also controls the relative error in the far tail of the distribution.
In this article, we discuss approximations to the unknown complex random-sum Poisson-Erlang random variable, which has a continuous distribution, and the random-sum Poisson-negative binomial random variable, which has a discrete distribution. We show that the saddlepoint approximation method is not only quick, dependable, stable, and accurate enough for general statistical inference but is also applicable without deep knowledge of probability theory. Numerical examples of application of the saddlepoint approximation method to continuous and discrete random-sum Poisson distributions are presented.
Background
Infection is one of the major threats to Healthcare Workers (HCW) worldwide. It exposes HCW to more than 20 kinds of blood-borne pathogen infections, especially the most severe cases, ...namely Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The impact of infection about HCWs’ health, clinical burden, national economic burden, and humanistic burden suggests the importance of further investigation and discussion on this topic.
Aims
This paper aimed to discuss literature on infection control knowledge and attitudes among HCWs and potential factors contributing to infection control.
Method
For this narrative review Proquest, Medline, and Up To Date have been utilized to search articles about infection control knowledge and attitudes among healthcare workers and potential factors contributing to infection control. The search was narrowed to article between 2000 and 2018. A total of 400 materials were initially identified to be potentially relevant for the review. A total of 28 articles were included, and they were found to match the inclusion criteria.
Results
Results from the reviewed studies showed that there was a high-level knowledge in terms of precautionary measures and compliance with needle safety precautions while staff attitude achieved above average. Weak positive correlation was found between staff attitude and precautionary measures, while moderate positive correlation was found between precautionary measures and compliance with needle safety precautions. Only precautionary measures were found to significantly influence compliance with needle safety precautions, in which higher precautionary measures, resulted in higher compliance with needle safety precautions.
We propose herein a six-parameter McDonald modified Burr-III distribution. This distribution contains several special cases, including the modified Burr-III, Burr-III, Beta Burr-III, and Kum Burr-III ...distributions. Accordingly, we obtained its hazard function, survival function, moments, Renyi's entropy, β-entropy, and mean deviation. We also used the method of maximum likelihood to estimate the parameters of our proposed distribution. Simulation studies were also performed for different values of sample sizes. The proposed model is applied on real-life datasets and shows that our proposed distribution yields better fits than other existing models.
In this study, a new class that generates optimal univariate models called a new exponentiated-G class of distributions is developed. Numerous complementary statistical properties are derived and ...discussed in detail for the newly exponentiated power function (EPF) distribution. All possible shapes of the probability density and hazard rate functions are sketched for selected values of parameters. Six accredited estimation methods are discussed, and their performance is assessed and compared by a simulation study. The applicability of the new class is evaluated by analyzing the automotive engineering sector data.
Background: Population-based studies from several countries have constantly shown excessively high rates of medication errors and avoidable deaths. An efficient medication error reporting system is ...the backbone of reliable practice and a measure of progress towards achieving safety. Improvement efforts and system changes of medication error reporting systems should be targeted towards reductions in the likelihood of injury to future patients. However, the aim of this review is to provide a summary of medication errors reporting culture, incidence reporting systems, creating effective reporting methods, analysis of medication error reports, and recommendations to improve medication errors reporting systems. Methods: Electronic databases (PubMed, Ovid, EBSCOhost, EMBASE, and ProQuest) were examined from 1 January 1998 to 30 June 2020. 180 articles were found and 60 papers were ultimately included in the review. Data were mined by two reviewers and verified by two other reviewers. The search yielded 684 articles, which were then reduced to 60 after the deletion of duplicates via vetting of titles, abstracts, and full-text papers. Results: Studies were principally from the United States of America and the United Kingdom. Limited studies were from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Japan, Greece, France, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Detection, measurement, and analysis of medication errors require an active rather than a passive approach. Efforts are needed to encourage medication error reporting, including involving staff in opportunities for improvement and the determination of root cause(s). The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention taxonomy is a classification system to describe and analyze the details around individual medication error events. Conclusion: A successful medication error reporting program should be safe for the reporter, result in constructive and useful recommendations and effective changes while being inclusive of everyone and supported with required resources. Health organizations need to adopt an effectual reporting environment for the medication use process in order to advance into a sounder practice.
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